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Friday, December 27, 2013

I was googling Isacord thread because that's what Leah Day recommends and since she is an expert on free motion quilting, I figure she knows the best thing to use. It cost about the same as aurifill, another great thread but still it's hard for me to spend 10 bucks on a spool of thread. I came across a blog talking about this metro embroidery thread and how she tried it and it compared very close to the Isacord . So I found the website here and asked Santa for some. Note that is is less than $3.00 on sale right now for 5000 m opposed to the aurifill or Isacord at $9.50 for 1422m. It sounds to good to be true but I used it today and did a lot of dense free motion quilting and it worked great. Smooth as silk!

We got more snow yesterday, the light fluffy pretty kind.

So I had to take my girls out - they had a ball.

When it snows like this there is sort of a "hush" or quietness in the woods. I love it.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Z is a cutie pie mini dachshund and yes this is a crappy picture which is what I'm blaming my troubles on. Of course this is not true, it just makes me feel better.

I got this far, not bad with more shading to do - but the eyes...... Something not right

Dachshund's are known for those smokey eyes so I smoked them up ...... Still not right

Darken the sides? Looks like human eyes

I was ready to bag the whole thing and start over with a different shape eyes - last ditch, what the hell be fearless effort was to thread paint around the black with a lighter brown. Also darkening the face so they don't stick out like a sore thumb on his face.

I've been looking at this dogs face so much I can't tell if it works or not.

Should I start again and chalk it up to learning how not to make dog eyes?

Saturday, December 14, 2013

I'm at it again with the neck warmer's. This one I used a cranberry boulce fabric. Anything that stretches alittle works - fleece, anything knit and yes, the dreaded polyester - but it works :-)

This one is clearer with the directions. You can whip one of these up in less than an hour, makes a quick gift for those living in winter climates. I like them because you can cover your lower face when the wind blows. Today it's only gotten up to 5 degrees - believe me I wore it today!

I have a fairly big head and this fits me snugly. The 23" is the head so add or subtract for smaller or larger.

After sewing right sides together, turn inside out.

Find the middle

Turn half of it inside

Like this

So you have a tube with both having right sides showing, raw edges at the bottom.

The pencils are good to use because the color is put on lightly so you can be fearless and if you screw it up it's not to hard to cover it or lighten it and you can go slow and easy. With paint, once it's down it's down.

Check the top finished photo again to see the last step of added whiskers. After the binding I will add a tag with his name on it. I really like how he came out - yay!

My mom gave me this wonderful quilt top already basted and backed. I just have to quilt it, so this morning I started on it and am practicing free motion quilting fillers with it. This quilt is perfect for practice since it's all rectangles, big and small. Isn't this quilt beautiful?

Thank you mom!

All of the practice fillers are Leah Days designs so maybe I will link up to her free motion Friday .

Friday, December 6, 2013

I bought this class on craftsy last week and love it. Totally my thing:-)

I wanted to make my SIL a portrait of her new dog for Christmas so made my first project Jake.

Right off the bat she gave a great suggestion to take your photo and use a website (free) called Dumpr.

This isn't jake but you get the idea of what it does.

It allows you to see the basic lines better on the photo to draw them with a sharpie on paper.

You then transfer on fabric, stitch those lines in black and do a filler FMQ on background.

Now for the scary part - coloring!

She uses colored pencils and I started to use them here. They will work perfectly on 99% of projects but of course I had to pick that 1% - a big black dog. The pencils just looked muddy when I started to blend them.

So I took out my paints and hair gel (medium) and went to work.

I'm calling him done but

The paint soaked into the fabric so much, now he's more grey than black :-(

What to do now?

HELP!

I'm linking up to Nina's off the wall blog where lots of talented art quilters post so am hoping for suggestions.

Should I add more paint, I did use a lot of gel but the paint doesn't behave without it. FMQ black hair?

Friday, November 29, 2013

I'm making a few of these neck warmer's today as gifts - quick and easy.

Cut a piece of fleece on the fold 23" by 17"

Pick up and fold on the 23" side - sew right sides together

Turn right side out

Find the middle and turn it inside so where my finger is (the middle ends up being the top.

Then you will pin and hem however you like. Basically you are just making a tube with two layers, right sides out inside and out. I'm sure you could figure out how to sew it so there is no hem but that's more than my feeble brain can handle at the moment. And this seems to work just fine.

Then you can just pull it over your head like a scarf

And when the wind starts blowing and it's bone chilling cold, just lift it up and cover your face.

(Or rob a bank)

:-)

If you are on twitter at all and are reading this on Friday - check in on #BFSI